Legal Services Board
The Lord Chancellor, in consultation with the Lord Chief Justice, has announced the appointment of Catherine Brown, Tim Sawyer CBE and Ian Hamer OBE as new lay members of the Board of the Legal Services Board (LSB).
Catherine Brown and Tim Sawyer are being appointed for 4 year terms with effect from 1 April 2019, and Ian Hamer OBE will be appointed on 1 October 2019 for a 4 year term.
The Ministry of Justice and LSB also announced today (11 April 2019) that non-lay members of the Board Jemima Coleman and Michael Smyth CBE QC (Hon) are being reappointed for second terms of office as Board Members with effect from 18 April 2019, and that lay member of the Board Catharine Seddon is being reappointed for a second term of office as Board Member with effect from 1 October 2019.
LSB is the oversight regulator for legal services in England and Wales. It was created by the Legal Services Act 2007 and came into being on 1 January 2009 taking on the majority of its statutory powers on 1 January 2010.It is independent of government and the legal profession and oversees 10 separate bodies, the approved regulators, which themselves regulate lawyers practising throughout the jurisdiction.
LSB also oversees the Office for Legal Complaints and its administration of the Legal Ombudsman scheme that resolves complaints about lawyers.
These appointments have been conducted in accordance with the Cabinet Office Govern